1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to spooling systems for the receiving, storage, and deploying of cables, hoses, and the like.
Present systems for winding cable onto spools, particularly on off-shore drill rigs, employ spools which are mechanically driven. Offshore drilling systems have reels with various capacities outside diameter cable for controlling of subsea blowout prevention equipment.
2. Prior Art
One such cable spooling system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,073. With this type of system, as the cable is wound onto or off of the spool it is guided by a cable guide or “level wind” assembly mounted for traversing a reversible diamond groove shaft parallel to the axis of the spool. The cable guide assembly is coupled to tracking guide bars. Thus, the cable guide assembly traverses the diamond groove shaft and guide bars from one side to the other, evenly distributing the cable on the hub of the spool. When the cable gets to one end of the diamond groove shaft, it automatically reverses and continues to traverse in the other direction, continuously feeding the cable onto the spool. Many reels have been manufactured with this familiar diamond pattern lead screw mechanism to cause the line being wound onto the drum of the reel to be wrapped in an orderly and compact fashion. Probably the most common of these is the fishing reel.
The cable guide assembly connected to the same drive system which drives the axle of the spool by means of a chain drive system and sprockets. That is, one or more chains are coupled to the axle of the spool, and to the diamond groove shaft by means of one or more sprockets.
In another embodiment disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,073, separate pneumatic motors are provided for the diamond bar and the spool axle respectively. One pneumatic motor drives the spool through a chain and connecting sprockets. The level wind system is rotated by a second pneumatic drive motor connected to the guide bar by a chain and sprockets. The guide bar is in turn geared to the diamond bar by another chain and set of sprockets. Since the level wind system is not directly coupled to the spool drive system, the level wind pneumatic motor is provided with a variable speed control to increase or decrease the speed as desired.
Also, Patco Machine and Fab., Inc., the assignee of this application, has previously manufactured a cable spooling system having one air motor for driving the spool and another air motor, coupled to the same control system, for driving the level wind assembly. However, this cable spooling system provided only a single air motor for the level wind assembly, such that it was driven only from a single end.